CSLR scholars are fanning out across the country and around the globe this summer to engage the national and world communities in discussions of urban decline, religious liberty, conditional and religious marriages, global justice, and numerous other topics of law and religion.

Frank S. Alexander, CSLR founding director and Sam Nunn Professor of Law, will discuss “Reinventing Older Communities, Building Resilient Cities” in Philadelphia in May. In June, he addresses the conference on “Reclaiming Vacant Properties” in New Orleans. Alexander is the director of CSLR’s Affordable Housing Project and co-founder and general counsel of the Center for Community Progress, an organization created to meet the growing need in America's cities and towns for effective, sustainable solutions to turn vacant, abandoned and problem properties into vibrant places.

Abdullahi A. An-Na`im, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law, travels to LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome during May and June to serve as a visiting professor. While there he will speak on ethics and global politics and deliver a conference keynote address titled “Global Justice: Principles and Applications.” A Carnegie Scholar of Islam, An-Na`im will spend the rest of the summer finishing a book manuscript on American Muslims and citizenship, forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

Michael J. Broyde, professor of law, goes on a whirlwind lecture circuit in May, heading to Beijing, Hong Kong, Israel, London, Miami, and New York. Among the topics he will discuss are “Lessons from the Rabbinical Courts for Islamic Law” (Miami), and custom in Jewish law and conditional marriages (Israel). Broyde is ordained (yoreh yoreh ve-yadin yadin) as a rabbi by Yeshiva University and is a member (dayan) of the Beth Din of America, the largest Jewish law court in America.

John Witte, Jr., CSLR director, Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law, and Alonzo L. McDonald Family Foundation Distinguished Professor, starts a seven-country lecture tour in late April, heading first to Norway and then onto Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Scotland, and England in May. He’ll offer overviews of the North American field of law and religion, religion and human rights, and religion and marriage. At England’s Oxford University, Witte takes part in the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life Conference on “Christianity and the Flourishing of Universities,” where he’ll join 13 other distinguished scholars at the lectern who have been supported by the McDonald Agape Foundation (including Nigel Biggar, Oxford; Miroslav Volf, Yale; and Richard Hays, Duke).

Johan van der Vyver, IT Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights, lectures on “Religious Freedom and the Rule of Law” at China’s Shandong University in July. In mid April, he traveled to Oxford University (England) to discuss “State Interference in the Internal Affairs of Religious Institutions,” the chapter he is contributing to an Oxford book project entitled Adjudicating Human Rights Diversity.